Power consumption accounts for a significant portion of a data center's operating costs. Mechanical and electrical costs associated with power consumption represent more than 80% of the capital cost of the data center. As the increasing number and functionalities of applications in data centers grow, power consumption and consequent operating costs can also increase. For example, one projection has estimated costs that can range from $12,500 per kW for low tier data centers running low power applications, to upwards of $25,000 per kW for high tier data centers running high power applications. Over the past decade, the costs associated with power consumption have increased 400% and these costs are expected to continue to rise. At the same time, increasing complexity of applications may demand sophisticated ways to distribute applications over servers with varying operating and power characteristics.